A/N: An accidental epilogue because I'm not great at ending stories. This will be the last chapter on this fic though, anything else will be posted in a separate oneshots thing.

The two girls eventually broke apart from their kiss, although they didn't go far, Beca wrapping her hands around Chloe's waist and nuzzling her face against her neck, taking advantage of their height difference. After a few moments, they eventually released their holds on each other, turning and looking up at the fireworks launching from the buildings around them with the rest of the crowd. Neither girl could believe that this was the start to their year, and neither really knew how to express that, so they both remained quiet as they watched the show playing out above them, letting tension simmer between them.

"What now?" Chloe asks, as the fireworks finish, turning to face Beca for the first time since midnight, feeling as if the air around them was becoming charged with feelings. She's not sure if the night will end in one of their hotel rooms, but she wouldn't mind if it did.

"I don't know. But I'm not letting go of you," Beca replies, more adamant than romantic in her tone, and Chloe laughs.

"I'm cool with that. Let's just walk somewhere?" Chloe suggests, and Beca nods in agreement before reluctantly shifting her arm from around the redhead's shoulders to hold her hand.

They disperse with the crowd, not trying to walk any faster than or fight the mass of people starting to walk from Times Square out into the surrounding streets. They have all the time in the world tonight and they don't really have a destination in mind.

They end up following a substantial portion of the crowd down Fifth Avenue and in to central park, the park quieter than the surrounding streets but definitely livelier – or at least, more family-friendly – than it would usually be, approaching 1am. Their light conversation is comfortable and familiar, not-so-subtle flirtation dispersed throughout, neither girl particularly concerned with hiding their affection tonight. They circle through the park, before heading back up into the city, Beca gradually slowing and stopping in front of a large building half a block away.

"I'm staying in this hotel…" she trails off.

"I'm a few blocks from here, but I guess you know that."

"I don't want you walking back by yourself," Beca replies, but Chloe can read between the lines.

"And I don't want you walking from mine back to here by yourself, so clearly the only solution is for me to crash your room tonight," Chloe replies, matter-of-factly, knowing Beca wanted to ask her to come up to her room anyway.

"You think that's a good idea?" Beca asks, suddenly seeming uncertain, and Chloe quickly calms herself down, ready to backtrack.

"If you don't want me to, I won't; I thought you were trying to ask me to come up without saying it," she explains.

"I was, but now I'm second-guessing myself because like we just kind of reconnected and we both know what's going to happen if we share a bed," Beca answers, her tone turning joking as she falls into her usual defence mechanism for whenever she feels awkward and unsure about following her own desires.

"I'm just going to be… direct, you know that's how I am," Chloe starts, cautiously, waiting for Beca to nod in understanding before she continues, "I want to sleep with you tonight whether that means having sex or not. I'd be surprised if you can't feel the sexual tension between us and yeah I want that to happen, but it's entirely up to you whether it does or not. I know it's been a couple months since last time, and it kind of feels like we're jumping into too much too quickly, but our relationship isn't just based on sex. It wasn't just sex last time and it wouldn't be this time, there's always emotional build-up to that point, not just physical. And I mean…," she pauses, taking a breath, watching for a moment as Beca's eyes move through a range of emotions she can't quite pick up. "When you told me you're moving to Sydney I started thinking of all these cute dates I want to take you on and everything I want to show you, and how much I want you to meet my Mum because I tell her absolutely everything so she knows how much I like you, and how much I want you to meet Aubrey. And I also want to go up to your room and rip your clothes off, but that doesn't devalue anything else I want to do with you-"

Chloe is not surprised when Beca finally cuts her off, a rushed, whispered 'I love you' falling from her lips before she brings her hands to cup Chloe's face and pulls her into a kiss. It's almost the reverse of what Chloe expects, the initial heat and intensity slowing as it is replaced by raw emotion, and part of her almost needs to cry from the intensity of it all.

"You're right. C'mon," Beca tells her, simply, when they finally break apart, letting go of Chloe only to take her hand and lead her inside the hotel and up to her room. Somehow, they resist the urge to start making out in the elevator, knowing security is probably watching given what night it is.

The first thing Chloe notices, after Beca has fumbled around in her bag and found the keycard to unlock the door, is that it's a much more luxurious room than the one in Toronto, and certainly fancier than the budget place she's in.

"The promoters of the event put us up this time," Beca says, by way of explanation, noticing as Chloe's eyes scan around the room. Chloe doesn't reply, simply nodding, pausing a moment to take in the surroundings, before grinning at Beca and pulling her down onto the bed with her. They both laugh as they attempt to fall into a comfortable position without hassle, inevitably failing as Chloe's shoulder bumps against Beca's cheek, the shorter girl having not fallen quite as far back.

"Weirdo," Beca teases, turning on to her side as she shifts up to face level with Chloe, their lips meeting in a bruising kiss.

This time, there is no awkwardness the next morning, and no worrying about what comes next. They order breakfast to the room in the mid-morning, sitting on the bed and joking around as they eat. Beca can't help but pause, trying to take stock of everything that has happened in the last 14 hours and how it's actually real. She's not really used to this much change and she thought she'd be more scared that she is.

"What's with the introspection?" Chloe pushes, noticing the girl's attention wandering.

"It's weird how normal all of this feels," she replies, trying to gather her thoughts, knowing she should say more than seven words. "Like, okay, I've had a couple months to process that I'm into girls, and that I like you a ridiculous amount and even that I'm moving overseas to go to college but like… the fact that in less than an hour my band is releasing a very personal song I wrote about you, and that I suddenly actually enjoy just spending time with someone, and that I want to be open and vulnerable and whatever and that I even explained this instead of just deflecting the question… it's new. And don't get me wrong, I like it. I'm less grumpy already. But it's new."

"The song's releasing at 10am New York time?" Chloe questions, picking up the middle of Beca's admission, biting back her entirely too sappy response to the rest of it.

"Yeah. I need to write stuff for Twitter promo and whatever, actually. Sorry, I never explained we had all this planned out if I decided to release it, the three of us and the label are all going to link to the song release and explain that we're finishing up and moving on with our lives," Beca explains, reluctantly shifting off the bed to grab her laptop from her suitcase.

"I'm really happy you want to open yourself up to me, by the way, Beca. It makes me feel kind of special and important to you and I'm glad that you like all this stuff too. It just might take a while to get used to," Chloe adds, watching as Beca rejects the desk option, instead rearranging some pillows against the bedhead and sitting up against it, laptop on her outstretched legs as she reaches for another piece of fruit from the breakfast tray between them.

"Well, you are important to me, so," Beca answers, shrugging and looking down at the laptop in front of her to try and hide her blush.

"You're gonna have to stop getting embarrassed when you say cute things to me, y'know," Chloe teases, going to shift beside Beca before hesitating, not wanting to interrupt what is technically her work. Beca must sense her hesitance, though, rearranging the cushions behind her make room for Chloe, beckoning her over.

"I'll work on it," Beca answers, "now what on earth am I going to write? That's not a rhetorical question by the way, please help me."

Beca can't fit everything she wants to say in a tweet, so it ends up being a screenshot of her notes app which she usually hates, but whatever, this is probably the most technically important news she's ever posted. To some of their fans, at least. She almost feels bad when the first few replies are emphatic disappointment, but there is quickly a lot more people supporting her decision, and she feels kind of warm and fuzzy as she reads back over her post.

"Seven Keys' new song 'Chloe' drops right now – iTunes, Spotify and Apple Music!
A little sad to say that this will be the last thing we release. Dylan, Chris & I made the mutual decision a few months ago that we had fun doing this, but we wanted to move on with our lives. We weren't intending to release anything after the last album, but I wrote this song about someone pretty important to me, and we couldn't not release it. We hope you like it, and thank you for all the support over the last few years.
Beca x"

"Oh, shit, I should unlike that tweet of yours," Beca mutters, quickly switching in to her likes and scrolling down a little way to find it.

"Why?"

"The song is named Chloe. There'll be people trawling through my social media to find any interactions with someone named Chloe."

"Oh, right, yeah, let's not get your fans onto me that easily…" Chloe trails off, shaking her head. "The people that got autographs last night will totally know it's me, though."

"Yeah, I'm sure people will work it out, but at least we're not big enough that we have hordes of fans that'd track you down and say stupid shit to your or anything, I hope. And, hey, it is a good song, even if I do say so myself, but I don't think it'll chart or anything."

Beca leans over to place her laptop on the side table, shifting back to Chloe, intending to move their conversation back to the light-hearted banter they were enjoying before she had to post about the song. The attempt is interrupted quickly, though, as Chloe's phone starts ringing, sat on the other side table. Chloe grumbles in annoyance as she reaches over for it, hoping it's someone she can ignore, her surprise clearly evident when she sees who it is.

"Who is it?" Beca asks, watches as Chloe looks confused.

"Aubrey."

"Isn't it stupidly early over there?"

"Yeah, like 2am," Chloe replies, "I should probably take it. She only calls when it's important."

"Hey Aubs, what is it?" Chloe answers the phone quickly, her tone mildly concerned as she shifts back to leaning against the pillows at the top of the bed, beside Beca, fully aware that the girl can probably overhear her conversation now and not really caring.

"Have you been on Twitter in the last few minutes? You met up with Beca last night, right? Did you know about this?" Aubrey rushes through her sentence, and Chloe just laughs, feeling Beca struggling to hold in her own response beside her.

"You're being rather unclear, you're lucky I do know, or I'd be super confused. Yeah, Beca's beside me right now. And she asked me before deciding to release the song, I heard it last night," Chloe explains, and Aubrey goes silent for a moment, Chloe wondering why.

"Chloe, this is why you update me on things! Are you guys like, dating now or something or did you just sleep with her again for the hell of it? I mean, did you sleep with her? Where are you right now? What did she want to talk to you about? What's going on?" Aubrey asks, accusatorily, and Chloe feels Beca shifting as if to move away and give her space to respond privately to Aubrey's incessant questioning.

"Hang on a sec, Bree," she says into the phone, before shifting it from her ear, "Becs, I really don't care if you overhear this, the worst Aubrey can do is try and embarrass me and I'm sure she'll do that when you guys meet anyway, you already know everything I'm gonna say to her"

"Wait, can Beca hear me?" Aubrey's voice floats out from the phone, and Chloe looks over at Beca, who shrugs, Chloe quickly deciding to just run with it and hold the phone between them.

"Kind of, yeah. Hi Aubrey," Beca says, a little awkwardly, and Chloe grins.

"Hey Beca! Good song, I'd probably say that even if it wasn't clearly about my best friend," Aubrey replies, and Beca just half-speaks an awkward 'thanks'. "How'd you get her to get over her stupid thing about distance and never seeing you again, anyway?"

Chloe scowls slightly at Aubrey's comment as she switches the phone on to speaker, sitting it on the bed in front of them and leaning back, mildly surprised that Aubrey and Beca both seem okay with this weird arrangement but happy to run with it. If Aubrey stops being an ass, anyway.

"I mean technically I… didn't? I'm moving to Sydney, going to the same uni as you guys. I applied the day before I met Chloe, I got accepted a couple weeks ago, that's what I wanted to tell her," Beca explains, a little nervous for Aubrey's reaction, wondering how Chloe would react if her best friend and Beca ended up not getting along.

"Oh, seriously? That's pretty cool, congrats by the way," Aubrey replies.

"Thanks. I'm gonna disappear as much as I can while still being in the same room and let Chlo talk to you, anyway."

"Okay, thanks Beca!" Aubrey responds quickly, and Beca shifts off the bed and over to the couch in the corner of the room as Chloe takes the phone off speaker and brings it back to her ear.

"So, dude, please spare the details, but what happened last night?" Aubrey asks, and Chloe starts to explain what happened.

"So… dating? Girlfriends? Is there a label on this thing?" Aubrey asks, when Chloe finishes.

"Uh, we haven't really said anything explicitly but it's kind of… implied?" Chloe answers, biting her lip and glancing over at Beca, who seems to be busy reading something on her laptop again. Still, she doesn't really want to say either of those words out loud.

"Implied which one? Because you know if she's not been with a girl before, girlfriend is going to be a pretty strong word."

"Uh…" Chloe doesn't answer, hearing Aubrey sigh.

"Don't want to say because she'll hear you?"

"Yup. I guess the first one you said is kind of implied, I kind of want the second?" Chloe tries to explain carefully, feeling Beca's eyes on her.

"You know, you should talk about that."

"I know. I don't want to like… overwhelm her by asking, or something, though. She's not exactly a people person. Being as open as she is, it's kinda new to her and stuff," Chloe explains, quickly looking up when she hears movement to see Beca putting a folded piece of paper in her lap before scurrying back to the couch, heavily blushing. She zones out of Aubrey's response, opening the paper and feeling herself melt.

"If you're avoiding saying what I think… I'd like to be your girlfriend, if you'd like that too 3"

"Chloe? You there?" Aubrey asks, clearly having said something that needed a response.

"Um, yeah, sorry Aubrey, give me a minute? I'll tell you why after," she replies, flicking the phone onto silent and throwing it back onto the bed as she quickly moves across the room and slides onto the couch, half on top of Beca.

"I'd love to be your girlfriend. Sorry I couldn't like, ask you properly, I was trying to fend off Aubrey but like…" Chloe tells her, and Beca just shakes her head, kissing Chloe's cheek.

"I don't mind you talking to her about stuff. But, like, I want to talk to you about what we're gonna do in California and I have to leave in a couple hours, so y'know."

"Yeah, I'll try and get her off the phone," Chloe replies, kissing Beca's cheek herself before walking back over and grabbing her phone. "Hey, Aubrey? Beca's flying back to California in a few hours, I want to spend time with my girlfriend before she leaves. And I know it's like 2am there dude, you need to sleep. I'll talk to you later?"

"Did you seriously just leave me on hold while you asked her to be your girlfriend and probably made out with her?"

"Nope, she asked me and we did not make out. But we might soon. I'm hanging up on you, go to sleep," Chloe instructs her friend, making good on her threat and hanging up before she could say any more.

"Bitch. Call me at 9am my time," she immediately gets a text from Aubrey, which she chooses to ignore as she wanders over to Beca.

"So, California. What should I do with four days there?"